ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Nearly two weeks after Rose Romero lost her service dog in a massive water main break, the search for “Ivy” is over.

Ivy was found overnight deceased in the ruins of Romero’s garage. 

In July, a water main pipe burst right next to Romero’s home and caused major damage to the garage.

Romero suspected Ivy could have been in there, but proving that theory was a complicated process.

“I would like to give a direct message to whoever went in my garage, thank you. Because at least you had the guts to do it where the city had none,” said Romero.  

Romero’s frustrations with the city grew Friday morning after a call confirmed her service dog Ivy was found dead in her collapsed garage.

“He said that someone had broken into the garage and found her,” Romero said. 

Although Romero can finally start her healing process, she believes things could have been handled differently.

“Maybe I should have listened to the community who wanted to go in there and get her instead of to the so-called professionals for the City of Albuquerque,” said Romero. “You didn’t care at all, it was the people from the Neighborhood app and the community who did something about it.” 

Romero says Albuquerque Fire Rescue and the city should have checked the garage once they knew Ivy was missing, following the water main break that sent water gushing into the air and onto her garage.

But AFR says their crew didn’t have the heavy and safety equipment to do so, and they had to wait for certain things to be clear before entering the garage.

“Just because the combination of the collapse, gas not being secured and also electric no being able to shut off, and due to the collapse it’s just not an area we could access,” said AFR Spokesperson Jason Fejer. 

An AFR spokesperson told KOB 4 the day of the water main break, they did send nine units out and cut two small inspection cuts, but they did not see or hear Ivy. 

“Whether it’s a life or service animal we never hesitate to try to get into a structure and try to find them, in this case we just didn’t know where the animal was,” said Fejer. 

AFR went out a second time on Wednesday and a sniffer dog was brought out along with a camera through the hole. Even though the camera showed no signs, the sniffer dog did.

AFR says they wish it was a different outcome, and their heart does go out to Romero. 

“So we’ll take this and look at it moving forward and look at maybe our HDR program and some of our confined spaces and collapse protocols, and we could look if there’s something we can improve on. In this case, I think we did everything we could,” said Fejer. 

As of right now, accommodations have been made for Romero and her daughter. They’re living in a home next to hers for the next couple of months while damages to her home are being repaired. 

As for the pipe on the street, it’s still not fixed. We’re told that work is expected to be complete by Tuesday.